General > General Technical Chat
Hackers Can Now Trick USB Chargers To Destroy Your Devices
Syntax Error:
@tom66 - No need to connect to the device National Grid, just any suspicious USB charger port, such as those on the school bus.
@Berni - This just needs to be a inline box that sits between the charger cable and the target device. It's about the size of a cigarette packet.
Also for your challenge, come up with a catchy name for your protection device.
Mr Evil:
--- Quote from: splin on July 21, 2020, 05:30:56 pm ---I've not read the specs, but sure it's the fault of the manufacturers. However the USB Implementers Forum (who are in control of the standard) should have anticipated this possibility - after all, the image of the USB PD standard risks becoming severely tainted if this turns out to be a significant real-world problem.
It isn't an easy issue to deal with in the specifications; it's one thing proving a product conforms when operated as intended but how can you prove it continues to conform in the face of an almost infinite variety of possible malign external attacks, especially when in the firmware of the microcontroller in control of the charger?
That is why I suggested that chargers should only be approved where sufficient proof exists that the critical charging voltage negotiations between the charger and the device to be charged and the actual generation of the selected voltage to the interface could only be compromised by physical modification of the product. It would likely add considerable costs and would work to the advantage of the big players at the consumers expense.
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Maybe the spec could have been better; I don't know because I haven't read it either. I don't think it's reasonable or even possible to prevent crap hardware from being created though. Consider that the original USB 1 faced a comparable problem with the possibility of damage from connecting two USB hosts together, as they would both try to supply power on the same wire. To prevent that, A-to-A cables were disallowed, and yet that didn't stop manufacturers from creating peripherals with USB-A sockets on them, and A-to-A cables to go with them! They often have the USB logo on them too, despite the logo only being legally permitted on devices that are compliant.
Halcyon:
--- Quote from: blueskull on July 22, 2020, 08:51:58 am ---
--- Quote from: Halcyon on July 22, 2020, 08:44:56 am ---I don't recall a single brand-name phone blowing up or having their port destroyed because of it. Many are designed (within reason) to cop what owners throw at them.
--- End quote ---
When mains goes to your DC-, no phone unless it is plastic cased, can protect the user from being fried. Phone protection circuit protects against differential mode spikes, not common mode.
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No one is talking about the user being fried. This thread is specifically about devices being destroyed.
Syntax Error:
--- Quote ---No one is talking about the user being fried. This thread is specifically about devices being destroyed.
--- End quote ---
Maybe place a crowbar mosfet plys a spark gap across the input VUSB/GND?
JoeyG:
Protection
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